The Long-Standing Online Campaign, beginning in Germany, travelling through Italy and Greece to the Sea of Azov.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

The Minotaur Rear Chamber

There's not much to describe, as most of this 30' by 30' room is taken up with a large hay pile, a heavy wooden table and two chairs of minotaur size, and a low shallow hole, ten feet wide, filled with sand that appears to have been used as a toilet. There are dried pats that have been rolled in the sand. The position of the hole correlates with the image on the map that says, 'floor.'

There are four massive books, minotaur sized, each of which would weigh about 45 lbs. with a font size of approximately 18. Each book is 30 inches by 19, bound with wood and twine, and tied shut both along the spine and along the front, so they don't open without untying. Each is about 3 inches high. One is "History of Circassia"; another is, "Father Axus"; a third reads, "Enkidu and the Minotaur"; and the last is written in script that is unrecognizable.

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Andrej, mildly intrigued by the books now that he reads passably, nevertheless ignores them for now. Reviewing the Unterns's map he instead attempts to determine which part of the room is closest to the text description "six hands needed" and approaches that for a closer look. It looks to be somewhere along the far wall from the entryway.

(OOC: "The Circassians are poor, and their daughters are beautiful, and indeed it is in them they chiefly trade. They furnish with those beauties the seraglio of the Turkish Sultan, of the Persian Sophy, and of all of those who are wealthy enough to purchase and maintain such precious merchandise. These maidens are very honorably and virtuously instructed how to fondle and caress men; are taught dances of a very polite and effeminate kind; and how to heighten by the most voluptuous artifices the pleasures of their disdainful masters for whom they are designed.– Letter XI, On Inoculation.[1]

It's along the Black Sea, east of Cumana... perhaps we should schedule a detour...

Andrej, predicting then noting his friend's interest in the books remarks, "I've been thinking often of a tower library for the mission, Lukas. With books, of course, and perhaps a telescope for observing the heavens."

"I've been thinking of a library myself. It would also have some good spots for trophies and oddities amongst the books. Of course, I can admit to some rather grand plans based on what we've seen in our travels."

Hm. I had originally believed this was some clue to a treasure hoard, but now suspect "hands" is a colloquialism. That is, perhaps, "6 men" are needed to conquer the rooms? We still have two shafts downward and some unopened drawers in the storeroom. I suggest we gather the books up, search the storeroom more thoroughly and return tomorrow to search deeper.

It has been about six or seven minutes since the combat, but there is no sound nor sight of anything that might disturb your business.

There are things that have not been searched.

You don't know what the leather balls might be for. You haven't looked at the image yet ... but, it appears to depict four minotaur slave masters whipping hundreds of humans that are only one fifth as tall as humans would normally be in proportion to the minotaurs. There is a sun with bright streamers, held as an orb by a woman with both hands at the level of her chest. The woman is in flowing robes reminiscent of the Greek period.

The woman and the sun are in the upper third of the picture, the minotaurs in the middle and lower half, and the humans (cowering, hands over their heads) at the very bottom. It is about 9 feet high and 8 feet wide, made of solid stone unknown inches thick, and not at all of poor quality. It's weight would be well over a couple of tons.

A search along the wall towards the words on the map reveals nothing. the balls seem to be filled with sawdust, and have a feel in the arms similar to 'medicine balls' that were made for old style wrestling training.

Andrej, to give you perspective, the stone engraving was described as being on the right wall of the first room, the balls are 2 feet in diameter, and there are about 10 of them stacked in a corner.

After a minute of my worrying, I relax a bit, and join in investigating the rooms.

I take a sniff at the water pouring from the spout, and if it seems fine, quench my thirst. I sift through the straw bed with my toe, then wander towards the abacus, wondering what they might be calculating. I run my fingers across the figures of the cowering humans as I walk by.

So these two buff, bull-headed dudes were just hanging out under ground, working out, worshiping a sun goddess, pining for the subjugation of humanity and reading stories about Babylonian heroes and Caucasian nations? What fun!

Andrej uses his copper knife to tear into the balls and relive them of their sawdust in the hopes of finding concealed treasures.

Yes, I recall the Unterns saying they offed a few minotaurs with their former associates. I was expecting at least some treasure left over from this previous expedition. There is still the storeroom and the two vertical shafts. I suppose were I to dispose of a body I'd just as soon toss it down a deep hole.

Lukas will assess the abacuses relationship to astronomy, then go back to the books and try and determine if any of them seem relevant to the astronomy on the abacus or the sun god artwork. He will read the words from the books out loud for everyone to hear.

The indiscernible writing he will try and compare to anything on hand, and not speak the 'words' within out loud.

(OOC: The good and the bad of Alexis's game... A Google search on Circassia made sometime around lunch led me eventually to the passage quoted far above about the famed beauty of its women. While I have still been mildly productive in a manner my employer would appreciate, nonetheless the bulk of my time since then has been spent perusing images of Circassian women, reading up on the War of the Caucuses and somehow being led to an online resource of Voltaire's writings, where I have just completed reading a series of his letters. Now, I'm afraid, I must spend the remainder of the workday working. I'll catch up with you guys tomorrow. :) )

Ahmet steps into the sand and, assuming he doesn't immediately sink to the bottom Princess Bride style (which one of you fine gentlemen would dive in after me?), takes out his pick ax and splits open one of the "dried pats."

Assuming that is what he thinks it is, he then uses the pick to try to "dig" down to the bottom to determine how deep the sand is. It it a few inches? A few feet?

Well, I described the pit as full of sand with dried pats. These are cow patties, so there's no much to hacking one in half. The sand can't be very soft, or else the bull, upon stepping into it, would never get out again.

Thus, the sand isn't deep at all, and Ahmet feels as though he's stepped onto a beach; the pick axe drops straight through the sand and hits something hard, that sends a shock through his elbows ... and produces a hollow sound.

As there is only five inches of sand, a shield will do. The sand is loose and clears away without much trouble, revealing a hardwood flooring with boards sealed together using pitch. From the urine poured into the wood, the boards are as hard as stone, with metal rivets.

Ahmet steadily clears away a trap door, with a large steel ring that is set into an eye attached to the wood itself, like a ring that hangs as a front door handle. The trap door-pulling ring is about an inch thick, and about 18 inches in diameter.

I'm down to 6 hp, so I follow Lukas into the first room, trusting the closed door to protect me.

To Lukas, I say "Bert would have reappeared if he was knocked unconscious from the lightning, right?" Not quite trusting that to be true, I feel around the floor where I last saw him, in the corner by the abacus.

Jeeze, what a cock tease. It must be one helluva sweet stash to be protected thusly... or a cruel Pavlovian trick. Is there some kind of key hole or lock on or near the trap door? Andrej leaves his post to search if necessary.

To the rest of you, I think we can't risk trying anything else on that trapdoor with our health as it is, so I think we need to rest up. Maybe we should rest here, instead of making all these round trips to and from the town. We can barricade the outer door, and have a cozy rest in the inner chamber.

I have a few lbs of groundnuts in my pack, we've plenty of clean water, and I intend to carve some steaks out of this bull. What say you?

Any objections? Alexis, are you OK with me describing how I'd approach this?

James, absolutely not. I have been curt, yes; that's my way of cutting down the overthinking of parties in these situations. The less I say, the less likely a party will play off some word I use and then go to town on a theory that has supposedly been half revealed by me. I've seen it happen many, many times. So I answer as brusquely as I can, meaning, "get on with something else."

I can tell you this. I dearly HATE puzzles. Now and then, for the sake of setting, I have to create one. The minotaurs are absolutely not just going to leave their stuff laying around. They have a high intelligence, and they were recently attacked. There are things going on that you cannot see, because of where you are.

But because I truly HATE puzzles, I try to make them as stupidly simple as I possibly can. And they still, still do not work. The pit, to me, was painfully obvious. So, to me, is the answer to the ring. So obvious, that it is written right on the damn map.

hahaha, OK, I'm thinking it may have taken us another full day to figure that much out...

I have decided to take the day off tomorrow (monday), so I'll be out of contact the majority of the day, sorry guys, feel free to proceed or not as you see fit.

About the bull, I intend to cut only about 20 lbs of meat for myself, but if others want to carry some back to town, I'll cut what they want as well. fetching my pack from the old storeroom, I begin to break down the bull. I don't have proper knives or saws, so I intend to limit myself to some easier, external cuts. Namely, I intend to remove the sirloins as roasts, still attached to skin, with a large extra flap of skin to wrap them in. (The muscle that runs up the small of the back on either sides of the spine) I'm guessing on a medieval bull, those would be about 10 lbs each. After cutting them, I hang them to bleed. We can also get good cuts for carrying from the round (~hams) If the party is willing to stay the night, there's plenty for our dinner. We could also get the breast and briskets, but we'll be pretty laden at that.

Can't believe we didn't piece that one together on Friday. I was a little distracted trying to get work done and out of here for the weekend, but still... six hands, of course. I don't think there's any harm in coming back after some healing, especially since we probbaly want to clear out the books and meat first, right?

I can help carry some meat out... and/ or one of the books. Andrej has about 60 lbs. or so of weight allowance to spare, so cut him 15 lbs. of meat Max and he'll grab a book to haul back to the village.

I'm operating under the assumption that we walked to get here and didn't ride our horses... is this correct?

I'll take Maximillian up on his suggestion; my Mondays, you'll remember, are bad. I'd like to begin a post tomorrow, and with the appearance of Bert (only one now) in the doorway, explaining that he's just climbed up from drop described on the map as the "meal room."

I'm taking the above as being that the next post will be tomorrow and will begin with Bert appearing and explaining, so will keep from questioning him until then. Agreed.

(OOC: Alexis, Thanks again for the new practice of checking in at 11 ET to announce what the day's activities will be... it's really helping me manage playing on my end and not feeling like I have to keep checking the blog all day only to see no moves have been made.)

(OOC: I'd like to know the answer to that question regarding Sofia/Enrico, as well as Neklan and the other whose name I cannot recall; for them, it's May, the irrigation will have been completed and the vegetable crops planted; if the party so wishes, they can choose 'on their own' to seek out and join the party in Cumana)

(OOC: Don't worry, I had to look it up myself. Kismet can't really adventure with the group now can he? Because he conveniently disappears...

I'll be honest, not to be potentially contrariwise, but I'm not too keen on switching from Lukas. I'd be more interested in keeping a consistent flow of 'storytelling' rather than jumping back and forth.

Of course, as a character I feel like it's good to have some trustworthy representation on the island, but we could also assume the island would see that we want to develop it to make it a nicer place to live...

This is one of the reasons I want to build a nice portal room in my tower. To go back and forth between holdings...)

(OOC: Ahmet, its not so much that I regret their not being around in combat, but rather that I saw breaking them away at the time as a means of managing business on our Greek island while allowing them to level faster as they wouldn't have to take a 1/2 share of experience. We haven't had much cause or desire, it seems, to go back to them so given that I feel as if they would have been just as well kept with the main party.

(OOC: Lukas is getting close to 5th level, and that would solve the Kismet problem. Neklan would be an 'outsider,' just in the area, not actively taking part in adventuring but still a 'friend' to the other henchmen and therefore of use until Maximillian leveled. I've played that before, it works out fine, the extra character just becomes a loose, outside NPC that is, in a fashion, run by Maximillian)

(OOC: Given that the players in question don't have to bid adieu to Neklan and Kismet should we decide upon re-uniting the party, I vote for it. I would only request that we at least get a post to tie up any loose ends as necessary in Kofunisia.

(OOC: I wont lie, Kismet isn't my first choice for a lvl 5 minion. I just wanted an opportunity to try out being a fighter and to try out a non-human race that hadn't been done yet. Honestly I was considering another Mage or at least a TALLER fighter that I could hide behind at least.)